Press Releases
Government and District Councils work together to keep Hong Kong clean (with photos)
The Government and the Food and Environmental Hygiene
Committees of the District Councils are concerned about ways
to sustain the efforts to keep Hong Kong clean and eliminate
the breeding of vectors like mosquitoes to prevent the
spread of diseases and protect public health. At a meeting
today (September 20), they examined the existing strategies
and explored feasible cleaning measures.
At the meeting, the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko
Wing-man, said, "There are outbreaks of mosquito-borne
diseases like Zika Virus Infection and dengue fever in
various places of the world. In Hong Kong, one imported Zika
Virus Infection case and four local dengue fever cases were
recorded. These have aroused the concern of the District
Councils and the public on Hong Kong's mosquito control
work. In the past two years, the Government has in fact
continued to strengthen mosquito control measures in the 18
districts. In view of the latest situation, we have
proactively enhanced the collaboration of the relevant
government departments and stakeholders in this aspect. We
have encouraged various public and private sectors,
including the construction, labour and education sectors,
the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the operators of major theme
parks, to actively participate in the anti-mosquito work and
disseminate through their stakeholders messages to promote
anti-mosquito efforts. To prevent mosquito-borne diseases
from becoming endemic through imported cases, the Government
has already liaised with the Airport Authority and operators
of cruise terminals, urging them to strengthen mosquito
prevention and control measures and relevant publicity
efforts. The Government will also step up enforcement
actions."
While the chairmen, vice-chairmen and representatives of the
committees recognised that the Government has all along
attached great importance to environmental hygiene work at
the district level, they were of the view that the
Government should step up the efforts to clean hygiene black
spots, especially in the face of the threat of various
mosquito-borne diseases. Furthermore, they were also
concerned about various hygiene issues including marine
refuse, shoreline cleanliness, shop front extensions and
public education and publicity.
The Government understands that the District Councillors
have grave concerns about the environmental problems brought
about by hygiene black spots. Some enhanced measures,
including increasing the frequency of street cleaning to
four to eight times a day, as well as deploying extra
resources on street cleaning services, have been adopted to
tackle the problem. The Food and Environmental Hygiene
Department (FEHD) has also followed up with the District
Councillors' proposal to install webcams at hygiene black
spots. The proposal, which is found to be feasible, could
achieve a bigger deterrent effect. The FEHD plans to conduct
a pilot scheme at some waste disposal black spots. After
obtaining the endorsement of the District Councils, webcams
will be installed at the target black spots as soon as
possible. The pilot scheme is expected to commence by the
end of this year.
"We will consider carefully the opinions and suggestions of
the District Councillors expressed at the meeting, with a
view to improving the environmental hygiene measures to
better suit the conditions of individual districts and
enhance the effectiveness of the measures. However, apart
from the collaboration between the Government and District
Councils, the support from private sectors, including the
catering and construction industries, and the public is
essential. I appeal to all sectors of the community for
lending support to the work of the Government through
exercising civic-mindedness and self-discipline, so as to
keep Hong Kong clean and reduce the spread of diseases. In
addition, the public should adopt anti-mosquito measures
including applying DEET-containing mosquito repellents to
exposed parts of the body and clothing during outdoor
activities in addition to paying attention to household
environmental hygiene and mosquito control measures," Dr Ko
said.
The Government has put in place a regular meeting mechanism
with the environmental hygiene committees of the 18 District
Councils following the "Keep Clean" campaign last year. The
Secretary for Food and Health will meet the committees about
once every six months to listen to their views on the
effectiveness of the Government's environmental hygiene
measures with a view to better co-ordinating overall efforts
to address the environmental hygiene issues in Hong Kong.
Ends/Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Issued at HKT 19:59
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